First stop on the bottom bus was Dunedin, the most Scottish city in New Zealand and is based on Edinburgh - same road names etc. The Scots on the bus wernt overly convinced it was that similar to Edinburgh though!

We didn't have long to spend in Dunedin so we used our time wisely by getting booked onto the Speights (Pride of the South) Brewery tour. It was fairly interesting, we tried the malt - memories of the coffee bean in London Sally!! - Not all that great but as we found out at the end...it makes really good beer. There were 6 to try and no limit on how much, there was a time limit though.
After the tour we went for a drink in the Speights bar next door with a couple of Americans who were on the tour aswell and had some more beer. Hunger got the better of us though so it wasn't too big a night.

Next day pick up at 7.45am - what's that about exactly!! haha. The weather was pretty nasty - hail stones mixed in with wind direct from Antartica and lots of rain but despite that it was a brilliant road trip to Invercargill.
We went via the Catlins on a bit of a wildlife tour.
A nugget point we stopped by the lighthouse and spotted some seals on the rocks. Then at curio bay we saw the odd fins and noses of the Hector Dolphins - unfortunately they're not the acrobatic type so they're not as obvious as we wanted them to be but it was still great to see.
We then took a walk along a beach till we found a couple of sealions having a snooze.
Asif that wasn't enough, we went to another rocky beach place where the yellow eyed penguins nest in the hope we might see one. We waited 45 minutes and finally one came out the sea. It was worth it though, the penguin was brilliant he posed and everything!!!
It was really late when we got to Invercargill so we didn't see any of it but the day was mostly about the wildlife anyway.

Before heading onto Te Anau, our driver (Don) took us to see Invercargill's famous lizard, Henry, who was born at the turn of the 19th Century so he's pretty old (and grumpy apparently).
The stops along the way include McCracken's rest and the big whale. We failed to get to the top of the whale as it was slippery from the rain, otherwise we would have been up there obviously!! I did chicken out of the McCrackens rest picture but Lucy did it for the team.
The place to go in Te Anau is 'The Ranch', a pub rather than an actual ranch as we first thought. Haha. It also just so happened to be jam night where people can get up and play instruments. Not sure how we restrained ourselves but thankfully we didn't get too tempted and made do with crazy dancing with the locals.

The Milford Sound trip the following day was amazing, photos don't do it justice but don't worry, we have lots for you.
On the way, we stopped at a river to fill up water bottles, went through a tunnel in a mountain which is completely unsupported, and walked around the mirrored lakes.
The cruise began with a massive all you can eat hot buffet. The highlight of that I think was when they put new food out and Lucy went to get some she was told 'indians only'!
Milford sound is difficult to describe, it's just beautiful. We went into the underwater observatory which was pretty cool.

We spent another day in Te Anau and walked part of the Kepler track along the lake and through some woodland and we went through the wildlife park which looked after injured birds.

So, it was a fairly busy 5 days but really good fun. Back in Queenstown today the weather has been lovely. I've been walking round the lake and Lucy is, at this moment in the river somewhere on a body board which looks really exciting and a little crazy!
Off to Christchurch tomorrow before we say goodbye to New Zealand - it's gone by so fast!

Lots of love (and Happy Easter)

Debbie and Lucy
XXXXXXXXXXXXX